Jordan Farmar at the World Series of Poker?

So you've just won the NBA Championship title, its the off-season and time to relax ... what to do? If you're Jordan Farmar back-up point guard for the LA Lakers apparently you head to Vegas for the World Series of Poker!

In my other life outside of basketball and work, I'm an aspiring poker player and have been keeping a close eye on the World Series. I was quite surprised to see this hand come up on Poker News and had to do a little research to veryify it was indeed Farmar from the Lakers:

Farmar Commits, Reaps Reward

A player in late position raised and both Jordan Farmar (small blind) and Robert Varkonyi (big blind) called, creating a pot of about 6,000. The flop came . Farmar and Varkonyi checked, the preflop raiser continued with a bet of 5,075, Farmar called, and Varkonyi got out of the way.

The turn was the . Farmar checked, his opponent made a hefty bet of 17,075, and Farmar said "I can't turn back now" as he made the call.

The river was the . Farmar again checked, and his opponent pushed all in for 27,000 -- just a couple thousand more than Farmar's stack. Farmar called relatively quickly, turning over for two pair. His opponent mucked.

Farmar picks up a lot of chips on that one, as well as some kudos from some of his tablemates for the river call. He catapults up to 95,000.

Great work from Jordan and this pot put him in to the top 10 chip-counts of day 1d with a few sessions left to play. I'd be surprised if his run continues too much further, but if it does I'll certainly keep you updated.

Jordan Farmar at the World Series of Poker, pictured with Lou Diamond Phillips, Marlon Wayans, Torrie Wilson, (ex-NBA'er) John Salley